Immortal Soulmates: Meant to Be
Part 1
"Well, here we are at last," Emily Prentiss said to her male companion looking around the hotel room, which was very nicely appointed, but then why should either her or her mate live in squalor?
"Yes, here we are," David Rossi said quietly amused.
"You might be amused, David Rossi, but it took us a lot of time to find our second mate or at least where she lives," Emily told him in a no nonsense tone, but since Dave was well used to it he only looked at her his eyes twinkling mischievously.
"Yes, it was a lot of work, but we found her or at least the city she lives in and so the rest should be easy," Dave said calmly.
His mate Emily was a fireball and he loved that about her. An Alpha female definitely with her own opinions. Of the pair, he was much calmer, but he did have a temper and was definitely an alpha male when it was required, but he preferred to be easy and relaxed unless situation called for it. Oh, he could be intense just like Emily was on a normal basis, but he just preferred not to be, even if he was aware that he exuded confidence and power
"I doubt it will be easy," Emily snorted sardonically. "You know how big Chula Vista is."
"Think positive," Dave suggested, the amusement clear in his tone. "We could be searching some place much larger like New York for example, which has a much larger population than a small place like Chula Vista California."
"I think you need to be realistic," Emily shot back. "We don't even know her surname and do you know how many Jennifers there likely are in a city with a population of over 260,000?"
"Probably several hundred at least," Dave said.
"More likely a couple of thousand as Jennifer is a really popular name for the little girls," Emily snorted.
"It might take time," Dave acknowledged, "but we're not leaving here until we find her."
"Yes, believe me, I am aware," Emily said a little more softly, in a calmer tone. "I just don't want you to believe that this is going be easy. If she's not listed in the phone book it will be harder yet."
"I know it's going to be difficult at best," Dave told her. "I was just trying to think positively. Believe me, I know there's no guarantees that even when we find she'll agree to join us. If she doesn't want to we can't force the issue, as I doubt very much that she'll respond to that sort of thing very well and will likely get us in trouble with local law enforcement."
"The bond we have won't be complete without her," Emily said softly, looking sad at the thought.
"No, it won't," Dave agreed, "but if she tells us to never darken her doorway again then we will do so."
"It's too bad that Rosella couldn't tell us anymore," Emily said. "It would have been so much easier with more information."
"Ilithyia never makes things easy for us, sweetheart," Dave said tenderly, taking his mate into his arms, kissing the side of her neck. "You know how she works and you would realize that it won't be as hard, as it seems if you weren't so frustrated. I know we have been to a lot of cities here in the US and have been frustrated every time when we failed to find Jennifer. Rosella is sure though that Jennifer is here in Chula Vista. Remember what she said?"
"That her vision was clearer this time," Emily recited. "That she saw the sign that you pass before you enter the city and was sure that our second mate's here."
"Exactly," Dave said, as he continued kissing the side of Emily's neck, causing her to groan as her lust begin to rise. "I know we've been searching for this Jennifer for the last 15 years or so, but I truly believe that Rosella's vision became clear now, because now is the proper time for us to find her. I think we were prevented from finding her before now because she wasn't ready."
"Well, yes, she could've been involved in a relationship," Emily admitted.
"She could've been too young until fairly recently," Dave added. "Both of us look around 30, even though we're much older. For all we know she only just turned 30 or is a little younger than that."
"You think that she's going to be around our age, either exactly 30 or a little younger," Emily realized. "You don't think she'll be older, except by a few months perhaps."
"That's exactly what I'm saying and don't ask me why I have this feeling, because I don't know, just that I do," Dave said. "We both look 30 even though we're around 600 or so."
"Yeah, and it's hard to believe that we have to have one more mate out there after we find Jennifer," Emily sighed, but the sound was more contented this time, as she snuggled into Dave's arms.
"Believe me, I understand frustration," Dave said. "I've been frustrated as well, I promise you. It's been hard waiting all the centuries to find our second mate, but you know that any deity isn't going to make anything easy or it wouldn't be worth it in the end. If we hadn't asked every Immortal seer and soothsayer we ran across for visions, who knows if we ever would have found out where Jennifer was living. We've made enormous progress in finding Jennifer just in the last few months and I have a good feeling that we are close. I believe we can narrow the search somewhat."
"How?" Emily asked curiously.
"I say we look for Jennifers between 25 and 30, as I really don't believe she'll be older than 30 or younger than 25."
"Well, yes, that probably will narrow our search considerably," Emily considered.
"We'll probably be down to just a few hundred names," Dave said. "It will still be considerably difficult, just not as much."
"Let's get started then," Emily said eagerly.
"As anxious as I am, I think we need to relax, have a meal, perhaps get some sleep," Dave said. "We won't do anyone any good, if we don't take care of ourselves and we're both pretty tired from the journey."
Dave did have a point, Emily admitted to herself. It would not hurt to have a meal, perhaps discuss strategy before getting some sleep. The train journey had been long, but since they'd had a private compartment it hadn't really been too bad considering. Yes, they could have flown, as this was the 22nd Century after all, but they enjoyed taking the train and seeing some of the country along the way. When you flew all the time you missed so much scenery. The two of them still flew quite a lot, but sometimes they enjoyed the long trip by train or even ship.
"Alright," Emily agreed without argument, mostly because she knew Dave was right.
"Good, I'm glad you're not going to argue with me," Dave said, kissing Emily's nose.
"That's no point when you're right," Emily shrugged nonchalantly. "Yes, we were quite comfortable in our private compartment on the train, but still, it was a long journey and we've been under a lot of stress worrying if we'd find this Jennifer. As much as I really want to find her and I know you do as well we do need periods of relaxation."
"Well, good we'll find a decent restaurant for a meal, then come back here and perhaps take a bath together, since we are kind of sweaty and then after that we can get some sleep and start looking in the morning," Dave said.
"I think we need to discuss strategy, before we get that sleep but everything else sounds fine," Emily said.
"Yes, you're right," Dave agreed. "So just let me look up restaurants in the phone book or perhaps, reception can suggest somewhere and then we can get going."
Emily smiled at this and kissed Dave softly causing him to grin at her, before calling the front desk to ask about close by restaurants.
~~~Dave, Emily, JJ, Penelope~~~
"Well, I was wrong there's only about 60," Emily said, once she had finished searching the white pages on the Internet, as that was just easier than reading the entire residential section of the phonebook. "That's still a lot, but it is certainly a more reasonable number then I thought it would be."
It was the next morning and Dave had been right when he said that they needed to just relax, have a meal, get some sleep, Emily reflected. But then he often was and could get her to slow down when nobody else could. She would probably run herself into the ground if she was involved in some sort of project if Dave didn't look after her.
"This isn't San Francisco or Los Angeles," Dave told her. "Now if our Jennifer had settled someplace like that they're likely would have been hundreds of them, but really, Chula Vista is a relatively small place. They were bound to use other names for baby girls besides, Jennifer and probably around half the population is male. That's just an estimate, as it's probably slightly more or less than that, but it's not like I can give you exact numbers."
"Alright, so maybe I was wrong," Emily admitted, something that wasn't easy for her to do.
"It's still going to be a big job, although I would estimate that probably no more than 20 or 25 of those are likely around the age we want and I might be slightly overestimating," said Dave.
"Or maybe underestimating," Emily agreed. "Of course, you realize that our Jennifer might not be listed in the phonebook."
"I know, and if she's not we'll find a way to get the rest of the names," Dave said, "but for right now let's concentrate on tracking down the Jennifers that are around 30 or slightly younger. If we fail to locate her among the ones that are 27 to 30, then we can worry about finding the others. For all we know our Jennifer hasn't lived here very long and only moved here recently and therefore, wouldn't be listed in the phonebook."
"Yes, that is a possibility," Emily admitted looking worried, but concentrated on the task at hand.
"I know you're worried, so am I, but I don't think we need to panic quite yet," Dave said.
"Okay, let's get started," Emily said. "You realize that our Jennifer might be married with a kid or even a couple of them?"
"Yes, I know," Dave admitted. "We'll worry about that problem when we come to it. Let's have some breakfast before we get started."
Emily looked ready to protest and Dave gave her a look.
"We'll be able to search better on full stomachs," Dave told her sternly. "Remember you're pregnant now you have to look after yourself and the baby."
Emily nodded defeated, because she knew very well her mate was right.
This would not be the first child that she and technically, her husband had had. She and Dave had been married for a very long time, centuries actually, and had had only a few children in that amount of time. Really, it wasn't that easy for an Immortal to have children. Once about every 70 or 75 years was about average. She certainly didn't conceive as easy as mortals did, but on the other foot she never got too old to have them, so she supposed it more than evened out.
"Alright," Emily gave in, mostly because her stomach rumbled at that moment telling her she was hungry and needed to eat and Dave smiled.
"We'll just go back to the same place that we had dinner last night as they serve breakfast to, since the food was so good," Dave said. "We can consider trying someplace new for lunch or after we find Jennifer."
Emily nodded and begin to get dressed. Dave watched her for a few minutes admiring his wife's body, before he to began to get dressed.
~~~Dave, Emily, JJ, Penelope~~~
"She's not the one we are looking for," Emily sighed, as Dave drove away from a pretty little house in the suburbs.
"Well, look at it this way we've crossed out about three names on the list," Dave said. "You knew this wasn't going to be a fast process."
"I think it's hormones," Emily admitted. "Normally, I have more patience then this."
"Yeah, you do," Dave admitted looking sideways at Emily. "You just don't have your normal patience right now, I understand that."
"It's a good thing, since I can be pretty hard to live with when I'm pregnant," Emily said wrinkling her nose at her mate.
"I'm used to it by now," Dave told her shrugging kissing her cheek, after he had stopped at a stoplight.
"Oh you," Emily said deciding not take offense at that, mostly because Dave was right, though she did let out a long-suffering sigh just for show.
"Next address," Dave suggested ignoring his mate's dramatic sigh.
Emily told him and then gave him directions. Dave nodded and listened to the sound of his wife's sensual voice as he drove.
"You know some of these women are going to have jobs and things," Emily noted. "We've been lucky so far that the three we tracked down were housewives."
"So we'll just go to their place of employment if necessary, but only if they work somewhere public like a restaurant or a department store, as we don't want to call attention to ourselves," Dave said.
"Definitely not," Emily agreed. "We don't need some policeman watching our every move or even just a curious person with a suspicious nature, as they tend to cause trouble, even if it's just by calling the cops."
"No, we don't need to be thought of as undesirables," Dave said. "Or at least troublemakers. That's why I insisted on us getting a plain SUV, something that's common around here."
The SUV soared through the sky, as most traffic nowadays was in the air, though not all of it, as not every one could afford an air vehicle.
"Smart thinking," Emily said.
"Thank you, but I knew we couldn't afford to draw attention to ourselves. Not if we wanted to find and talk to Jennifer at least," Dave said, as they reached their destination. "It's a good thing we can tell with a look whether or not we have the right person, as I don't know how we would approach each one close enough to brush up against them, if touch was required."
"Yeah, good thing," Emily agreed. "You know it's after noon and I'm starving, so after we see whether or not this Jennifer's home, maybe we can go get some lunch and continue the search afterwards."
"Sounds good," Dave agreed, since it was something he had been about to suggest himself, but Emily had beat him to it.
"I see a light on inside so somebody's got to be home," Emily said, peering out the car window.
Dave to looked in the same direction Emily was and spotted a little boy who couldn't be more than four years old running past.
"That's a cute little boy," Emily said.
"Yes, he's adorable," Dave agreed. "I can hardly wait for our child to be here."
"It's not like we haven't had children over the centuries," Emily said absently.
"Yes, and every single one of them has been adorable at that age," Dave countered smiling, as he thought about his and Emily numerous brood. Unfortunately, they only had one child at a time and that one had a chance to grow up before they had another. He had always imagined having the whole house filled with the sound of children's laughter, but unfortunately, Immortality, wasn't all it was cracked up to be at least when it came to a woman's fertility.
"Here she comes," Emily said suddenly. "She has three children with her."
"She's probably taking at least one of them to some kind of doctor's appointment maybe," Dave said. "Don't mortal children so young have doctors appointments frequently?"
"No, I don't believe so, unless they are sick," Emily said after thinking about it.
"Well, that baby she's carrying in the carrier can't be more than six or seven months old at most," Dave said.
"Maybe she's just taking them to the park, you know for play time at least for the older boys," Emily suggested.
"That's possible," Dave said, as he studied the woman's figure, which he had only seen a profile of so far. "We need her to look this way so one of us can look into her eyes," Dave said.
"She's not looking around, so I'll simply get out and ask her directions, before she gets going," Emily said.
Dave nodded, as he knew that the woman in question was more likely to respond to a strange female without fear then a strange man.
"I'll be right back," Emily said kissing Dave's cheek before she opened her car door and walked across the street.
Dave watched as Emily had a brief conversation with the woman, who looked startled at first, but then relaxed.
That's one thing he really admired about his mate, was her easy way of gaining people's confidence no matter whether it was male or female. She just had a way with people, always had and it had gotten them out of a few tough situations over the centuries. When she wanted to Emily could have a whole crowd of men panting after her. Have them under her spell in only a few minutes and part of that was the fact that Emily was simply a stunningly beautiful woman, with her dark hair and eyes and slightly exotic features something a lot of men responded to, even married ones.
Emily made her way back to the car and got in just as a woman drove off.
"She's not the one," Emily said, as soon as she had shut the door
"Alright then," Dave said. "So let's go find us a place for lunch and then we can do a few more."
"Sounds good," Emily said, not mentioning her desperate need to pee, even though she was only about three months along.
Dave started the engine and drove off.
~~~Dave, Emily, JJ, Penelope~~~
"Well, we've gone through over half of women on the list," Emily sighed.
"Well, we are making progress," Dave said trying to stay positive, but he too was getting rather disheartened. It was just that he and Emily had been waiting for their second mate to be born for so long, centuries actually, and he had believed it wouldn't be too difficult to find her, but so far he had been proved wrong as the two of them were at the end of day ten of their search.
Dave was trying his best to keep Emily's spirits up as well as his own, but it was getting harder and harder every day.
"Well, let's go get some dinner, and then get some sleep," Dave suggested gently. "We can continue searching in the morning."
"Yeah, okay, I am hungry," Emily said patting her still relatively flat belly.
"I'm not surprised considering," Dave said.
"But I'm only three months along," Emily said.
"Yes, well, it's been hours since lunch and we only grabbed a sandwich each," Dave reminded her. "Both of us have every right to be starving."
"Yes, you're right," Emily agreed finally.
"So where do you want to eat tonight?" Dave asked smiling.
"What about that Spanish place?" Emily suggested. "We haven't tried it yet."
"Spanish it is," Dave agreed. "We should be there in about 10 minutes, as we're not to far away."
"Okay," Emily said leaning back in closing her eyes.
Dave watched this out of the corner of his eye and thought it was good for Emily to relax for a few minutes, as she had been under considerable stress and worry, which wasn't good for her or the baby. It wouldn't do her any harm, but the baby was a different matter.
Dave only hoped that they found Jennifer soon, so that Emily could relax. Of course, as Emily had already pointed out Jennifer might already be happily married with a couple of kids and if that was the case they wouldn't interfere with her life. If the husband mistreated her though the two of them would take action, only with Jennifer's permission though, because they wouldn't want their mate to resent or hate them for interfering in her life.
Right now, he and Emily just needed to concentrate on finding her and the rest could be sorted out later.
"Emily," Dave called a few minutes later. "Wake up, sweetheart."
"Uh? Wha...?" Emily mumbled, as she struggled wake up.
"We're at the restaurant," Dave said and Emily finally open her eyes to look at him.
"Man, I must've really been asleep," Emily said.
"Dropped off like a stone down a well," Dave told her, "once you allowed yourself to relax. It doesn't help that you haven't been sleeping well for the last few days. You were out the second the back of your head hit the headrest."
"Well, let's go eat so we can go back to the hotel and sleep," Emily said.
"Great idea," Dave said smiling.
"Thank you for loving me," Emily said suddenly leaning over and kissing Dave's cheek. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You're quite welcome," Dave told her with tenderness in his voice. "Believe me, I feel the same way, as I definitely don't know what I'd do without you in my life."
"Well, luckily, we'll never have to find out," Emily said smiling, as she got out of the car.
"Yeah, luckily," Dave agreed easily, as he joined her on the sidewalk.
The two of them walked hand-in-hand in to the Spanish restaurant named El Pecado de la Glotonería or translated into English it meant The Sin of Gluttony.
"The sin of gluttony is what that means," Emily said giggling after reading the sign.
"Yeah, I know," Dave said chuckling to himself. "I'm sure most people wouldn't know what it means though, as a lot of people only speak one language nowadays. Oh, well, it doesn't matter it seems pretty popular despite the rather silly name."
"Table for two?" asked a pretty female with long blonde hair and baby blue eyes. Dave and Emily both looked into the eyes and felt as if they had been struck by lightning. They had found their mate at last, when they had least been expecting it.
"Yes, thank you," Dave said recovering himself only seconds later.
JJ didn't seem to notice their reaction, which had only lasted for a few seconds and that was a good thing, as this wasn't the place to explain exactly why they had been looking for her.
"This way," JJ said, as she led them to about the only table available.
"Thank you," Emily said her voice strained.
"You're welcome," JJ said. "I'll also be your waitress this evening as your regular one is out with a bad cold."
"Well, Ms. Jennifer," Dave said smiling charmingly, "it's nice to have such a pretty waitress."
JJ blushed, which pleased Dave, because it proved that Jennifer was attracted to him.
"You can call me JJ, as that's the name I use," JJ said smiling pleasantly hoping it didn't look completely smitten. "I'll give you a few minutes to decide on what you want."
JJ left them and Dave looked Emily who was looking back at him.
"Well, that was rather..." Dave began trying to find the right word.
"Surprising? Astonishing? Unexpected?" Emily suggested with a little smile having gotten over her shock, relatively fast.
"All of the above," Dave said laughing. "Now we just need to decide how to approach her."
"That's not going to be very easy," Emily said.
"Probably not," Dave admitted. "I mean in this modern age it's hard to believe that such things as the supernatural and paranormal exist."
"Yeah, I know," Emily sighed. "We are going to have to think of something though, because we both know that she's one of us or at least that she could be."
Emily opened her menu so Dave did the same.
"Have you decided on what you liked to order?" JJ asked, as she came by the table a few minutes later.
"I'll have the Arròs negre, along with some iced tea," Dave said.
"And I'll have the Cuchifritos along with a Sprite," Emily said.
"It'll be ready in a few minutes," JJ promised.
"So Ms. Jennifer, may we know your last name," Dave asked with a charming grin, causing JJ to blush again.
"It's Jareau," JJ said trying to control her libido, as she was a red blooded American girl after all, and she found this man very attractive, but she knew that he would never be hers, as he was obviously married to the beautiful woman sitting across from him. The sexual vibes between the pair was obvious as the nose on your face, unless you were a total idiot.
Unfortunately, for her she stayed away from married men, except as friends. Sometimes it was a pain to have ethics, Jennifer sighed internally.
"I'm Dave, David Rossi at your service madame," Dave said gallantly with another charming grin.
"Emily Prentiss," Emily introduced yourself, shaking JJ's hand, pretending not to notice the attraction between JJ and her husband, but internally was very pleased at JJ's obvious interest.
"It's nice to meet you both," JJ said. "Are you moving into the area or just passing through?"
"It hasn't been decided yet," Dave said. "It's a beautiful town though."
"Thank you, but I wasn't born here," JJ said. "I only moved here about three years ago as of last week. So are you kind of taking a road trip?"
"Something like that," Emily answered, though she let Dave do most of the talking so JJ's attention was focused almost solely on him. It was clear to Emily that JJ was very attracted to Dave, totally and completely smitten, which was good, because this JJ or Jennifer Jareau belonged with Dave and her as Dave's second mate.
Besides, she missed having a female friend, Emily admitted. Someone she could talk about being Immortal with. There were other Immortals out there of course, and she and Dave did run into them occasionally, but really, that didn't happen too often. Unfortunately, she had never had a close friends among the Immortals, not somebody she could talk to about anything anyway, even though she knew plenty of other Immortals other then Dave. She and another female just hadn't clicked. If JJ decided to join them Emily just knew that they'd become as close as sisters, just with an interest in the same man. Dave would be the only one having sex with her if she agreed to go through the process of turning her Immortal, because she just didn't swing that way and she was sure that her and that Dave's final mate would also be female and also wouldn't swing towards her own sex. Still, the four of them would be mates with Dave at the center of course, but only if things went well.
Emily was well aware that one man with three women wasn't exactly considered the norm and that they'd get a lot of people in their faces about how wrong it was or at least giving them disapproving looks, especially if they ended up pregnant at the same time. However, there was nothing illegal about it, so there was nothing people could really do even if they were highly disapproving.
Of course, men dated more than one women at a time, but mostly they didn't know about each other and that man settled down with one woman not three.
"So whenever you're free perhaps, you can show me and Emily the sites," Dave suggested smiling charmingly. "See if we want to stay in the area."
"Well..." JJ said, her willpower crumbling, due to the power of Dave's most charming smile.
Emily had seen what the power of Dave's smile could do and more than once thought that her mate could charm moss off rocks or the birds out of trees with the power of his smile alone.
"We would really appreciate it," Emily told JJ being absolutely honest and sincere. "We don't know anyone here and it might make it an easier decision for us to settle in the area if we had a friend here already."
"Well, okay," JJ finally decided unable to resist Dave's puppy dog expression. "I would love it if you would settle in the area. I do have some girlfriends I hang out with, but none of them I would consider a best friend."
"So you don't have a boyfriend or husband?" Dave asked playing like it was an innocent question. "Someone to come home to?"
"No, I'm afraid not," JJ sighed. "I did have a boyfriend, but he turned rather demanding, started stalking me after I broke up with him. A friend of mine, that is a police detective, advised me that I should probably think about moving somewhere else altogether to get this stalker off my trail."
"Sound advice," Dave offered. "A lot of times stalkers can be rather dangerous, as they can get obsessed with their target, even if the target has never met them before or only seen them in passing."
"That's what my friend told me," JJ agreed.
"We know you need to get back to work so here's our phone number and email address," said Emily kindly. "Really, we are free anytime, so we can work around your schedule to see some of the sites. Please call us."
"And here's my phone number and email address," JJ said writing both on a napkin. "Now, I really must be getting back to work."
JJ walked away and Dave stared after her longingly and Emily knew exactly what her mate was thinking.
"I thought that went rather well," Emily said softly, though it wasn't likely that anybody would be able to hear them considering that the restaurant was packed and there was a lot of noise from the various tables, not to mention the music. No, they would have to be shouting in order to be heard, something that they had no intention of doing.
"Yeah, it did," Dave agreed, getting his expression under control. "Still...so many things could go wrong."
"I know," Emily said. "She might not want the competition for your affection for one thing, as most women are extremely jealous of their guy and aren't willing to share him and even if she was willing to give it a try there's no guarantees that she would stick until the process to turn her Immortal is complete, which means the jealousy of others would fade."
"Well, so long as it was you and whoever our third mate is, as all of you would be jealous of some strange women, trying to ensnare me," Dave said.
"Yes, I know," Emily smiled. "Feel better?"
"A little, but I'm still worried," Dave admitted.
"I can tell. You certainly have every right to be, but you know I'll help you in anyway I can," said Emily. "I know mine and JJ's relationship will be platonic, because I don't swing that way and I doubt she does either, but still, it will be nice to have a sister that I can discuss anything with. Someone I can be best friends with, you know?"
"You've had best friends before, but they were all mortal, so they eventually died," Dave said.
"Exactly and that was back before the paranormal took a backseat to science," Emily said. "Yes, soothsayers still exist, but most people don't believe in them anymore and consider them weird and strange at best and dangerous or crazy at worst."
"Yeah, I know," Dave sighed sounding melancholy. "I have several people I consider friends among Immortals as you know, but I don't get to see them very much. We both know that if it wasn't so hard it wouldn't be worth anything. You know that Ilithyia believes that we have to work everything we get."
"Believe me, I'm aware," Emily smiled. "I think the gods believe in the philosophy that if you don't earn what you receive then you get greedy and make demands. I can see the method in that strategy, because a lot of humans are spoiled rotten and think they deserve more than they get, mostly because they've been given everything instead of having to work for it. Yes, some Immortals are spoiled rotten brats, but that's mostly when they are young and they mostly grow out of that stage and if they don't then they deserve what they get for blaspheming against the gods, Ilithyia in particular."
"Yes, certain concessions can be made when you're just a child learning about the world," Dave agreed. "Of course, once we reach 30 then we are considered fully mature and should know enough by then, not to disdain or rail against the gods enough that they take away your Immortality or strike you down for your blasphemy."
"Which some never learn," Emily shrugged.
"Well, if they don't, that's not our problem," Dave said. "We have our arrogant, hot tempered people to, though I admit that most of us were raised to respect the gods and Ilithyia most of all."
"Oh, they were raised to respect the gods, especially Ilithyia it just didn't take," Emily corrected.
"Yeah, you're right," Dave agreed. "It's very rare when an older Immortal forget that they owe their Immortality to Ilithyia and of course, they try to teach that to their children, that reverence."
"It's not our fault that some of the younger Immortals do things that our gods absolutely abhor," Emily shrugged unconcerned. "If they want to be lazy and not work for what they get that's their problem. Laziness might not make you lose your Immortality but murder and rape certainly will."
"Also stealing," Dave said. "Though in that case it's all a matter of what kind of stealing we are talking about. If some Immortal wants to bilk older couples out of their life savings then they're going to have to accept the consequences."
"Yeah, the gods don't care if you want to steal from somebody who stole it first or who made money off other people's pain and misery, but to steal from someone who made their money honestly that's a big no-no, especially if it's being used to raise their family or just to put food on the table."
"Yeah, most of the gods don't care if you take someone's blood money, not even Ilithyia, but to rob a bank or to steal someone's money through electronic transfer...," Dave agreed, stopping right there as he saw Jennifer coming back with their dinner.
Emily saw her to and nodded to Dave telling him silently to turn on the charm.
"Well, here's our lovely waitress," Dave said once JJ had gotten close enough.
JJ blushed right on cue and Dave felt that things were going pretty well.
"You shouldn't be flirting, sir," JJ told him, but with laughter in her eyes. "You're a married man after all, or at least heavily involved with the beautiful lady across from you."
"I certainly don't mind," Emily said smiling at the interaction.
JJ actually looked astonished at that, but then recovered herself, thinking that a little lighthearted flirtation certainly couldn't do any harm and it certainly boosted her severely bent self-confidence, due to a certain stalker who wouldn't leave her alone, until she had finally moved way across the country and only after she had gotten out of the hospital where he had put her.
"I'll leave you to your meal," JJ said flipping her pure blonde hair over her shoulder and winking at Dave before she walked away.
"Well, I would say she's definitely interested," Emily said smiling.
"Interested yes, but will she actually follow through on that interest is the question," Dave said, as he took the first bite of his meal. "Men flirt with ladies all the time whether or not they are married, and mostly it's just harmless fun for both parties. However, I doubt that JJ will take it to the next level without a lot of encouragement, especially since we can't exactly hide that we are heavily involved at least. I'm sure she's been taught that going after a married man is a sin and even if she hasn't been she doesn't seem to type to take that particular path, as I can tell she's to honest and forthright to supposedly try to come between you and me."
"Yeah, that's likely what she will believe," Emily admitted. "She'll believe that since we're involved she doesn't have a chance and even if she thinks she does she'll never go after you because you are obviously very involved with me, whether I'm your girlfriend, your fiancé or your wife."
"Well, I think we should get to know her first and then perhaps reveal a little about ourselves over time," Dave said thoughtfully. "We need to make her fall in love with me and you need to become her closest friend and confidant."
"If we do that here, we'll be the talk of the town in no time," Emily said. "This place is too small to try something like that. Oh, we can go places so long as we act like the best of friends only, but you won't be able to flirt with her openly unless we do it in a big city. Someplace like Los Angeles or San Diego or San Francisco, since such things wouldn't even be noticed in such places, because of how many more people there are then here in Chula Vista."
"Convincing her to take a trip with us is going to be a lot of work," Dave said thoughtfully. "Perhaps, the two of you can go shopping or something and make sure it's clear that whatever she buys is on me, because I'm sure she doesn't make much money in a place like this. Probably just enough for basic expenses, apartment, car insurance things like that."
"That's going to have to wait awhile until we get to know her better, because women have their pride after all," Emily told Dave who nodded. "I think she's very independent and she'll likely argue about the idea of you spending any money on her, even if that's through me, especially since she's not your wife or your fiancé."
"Alright, that's a good point," Dave said. "There is no need to rush this as we need to gain Jennifer's trust first, even if my libido protests."
"You're just going to have to keep your libido under control for the moment or you might wreck everything," Emily said firmly. "We can't afford to push her in a direction she's not ready to go or she'll flee and we would have lost what is likely our only chance."
"Yeah, I will need to take things slowly," Dave agreed softly. "We'll start out with seeing the sites, maybe taking her to lunch, and we'll just proceed from there. I think that you need to subtly let her know that you aren't going to be jealous if we do get involved at least until we tell her the real situation."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Emily agreed. "She seems like a smart lady so she'll likely pick up the subtle signals I send in her direction."
"She's bound to be very intelligent, because anyone who isn't, is not going to be a good match for me," Dave told Emily who totally agreed with that assessment. "I like a woman who can think for themselves just like you like a man that does and I also like ones that give me their opinion when it's needed or sometimes when it's not."
"It's a good thing," Emily said winking at Dave sassily, causing him to snort in amusement.
"Yes, you've never been known to keep your opinions to yourself, not even when it wasn't really proper for a female to express them at least in public," Dave said with laughter in his eyes. "You always went your own way no matter what or how much trouble it got you in."
"It never got me in trouble among Immortals, since we tended to be more forward thinking then mortals hundreds of years ago," Emily shrugged. "Me being married to you protected me when I did express my opinion, because I wasn't an unattached female and you found nothing wrong with what I did."
"You sure did get a lot of disapproving looks," Dave chuckled. "Some women even came up and outright slapped you for the way you were acting. Women just didn't have opinions back then or if they did they kept them to themselves unless their husband genuinely loved them and listened to them, but only in private."
"Which was pretty rare," Emily said.
"Yeah, it was," Dave agreed. "Of course, we don't know what went on in the privacy of the home."
"No, we don't, but we can tell a lot just by how a husband and wife act in public," Emily said.
"True," Dave said, as he took another bite of his delicious dinner. "We need to try to come back here before we leave town hopefully, with Jennifer, as the food is absolutely superb."
"Yeah, it is," Emily said smiling, "and it's also reasonably priced unlike so many places."
"Price doesn't matter," Dave said, "but still, I understand what you mean. Here we're getting a bargain for the fantastic food, while so many places are so expensive and the food isn't even half as good. Yes, we'll definitely have to come back hopefully, several times before we leave."
"It's too bad this place isn't a chain, but unfortunately, it's one-of-a-kind," Emily sighed in pleasure, as she took the last bite of her dinner.
"One-of-a-kind places are disappearing fast," Dave said. "It's mostly chains now."
"I doubt places like this will ever disappear completely, but chain restaurants certainly do make up a great percentage of eating places," Emily said.
"And while the food is good, it's not spectacular or anything for the most part," Dave said.
"Yeah, but we have found a few exceptions," Emily smiled.
"We should get going, as you're tired and need a good night sleep," Dave said finishing the last bite of his food.
JJ appeared with the bill, as if by magic almost as soon as they were done and Dave offered her his credit card with a flourish.
"We were serious about the offer of you showing us around," Dave told JJ gently with another smile, "so make sure you contact us on the next day you have off."
"Actually, I have off tomorrow," JJ said with a smile of her own.
"Well, what a coincidence," Dave said smiling brightly. "You're welcome to call us anytime after nine as we're always up by then."
"Alright," JJ said a little shyly, thinking she was going to have to be very careful for she could easily fall for this David Rossi and since she already knew he was involved with Emily, whether that was as his wife, his girlfriend or his fiancée, she wasn't about to get her heart broken by trying to interfere. A little harmless flirting was one thing, but trying to get Dave as her boyfriend at least would likely see her rebuffed, something she wasn't willing to risk, so she would just have to accept them as friends and put her illogical feelings to the side.
Hopefully, they would move into the area, so that they could really be friends, but she wasn't getting her hopes up.
JJ took Dave's credit card to run it through the register thinking she was looking forward to tomorrow, before bringing it back to him.
"I'll call you after nine tomorrow," JJ promised.
"We'll be waiting," Dave said smiling again causing JJ's heart to flutter frantically in her chest like it wanted to take wing and fly away. Her body had never had this kind of reaction to any man, but then none of them had been this drop dead gorgeous either. She was really going to have to watch yourself as she wanted them as friends at least.
"Please come again," JJ said.
"We plan to," Emily smiled.
"The food was fantastic so we plan on coming as often possible while we are in the area," Dave added with a charming grin.
"Yeah, the food is very good here," JJ agreed. "It's one of my favorite places to eat and it helps that I get a discount since I work here."
JJ watched Emily and Dave depart thinking that it had been quite an evening, as she hadn't blushed so much in years.
~~~Dave, Emily, JJ, Penelope~~~